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March 2016 WordPress News – This Month in WordPress w/ CodeinWP

The first month of spring came with so many changes that it put me in a difficult situation of having to go with only a few of them for this roundup. And it wasn’t easy to decide which ones were more important than the others.

That being said, welcome to the March 2016 edition of This Month in WordPress w/ CodeinWP, and get ready for some new written and unwritten rules and releases that will (more or less) influence the future of the WordPress community.

March 2016 in WordPress

WordPress Theme Review Team Moves Towards Automating Review Process

The automatic review process came out as excellent news for the developers. Until now, the review of a theme usually took way too long. This change is supposed to reduce the amount of the manual work and make things a lot quicker.

The review team said that there are 13 requirements waiting to be soon automated. We’ll see how effective this ends up being in practice after the automation is officially applied.

automatic reviews

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frameworks
“Please do not submit frameworks”

Frameworks will no longer be accepted into the official plugin repository. This is not actually a rule, but more like a request for the developers who intend to submit frameworks hereafter. Mika Epstein from the review team came with a simple explanation for this not-so-welcome change (at least from a developer’s point of view):

Having a framework as a plugin is a poor experience for the user. Not the developer. They do not always understand “I have plugin Slider Joe. Why do I need Advanced Custom Fields?”

Accessibility Coding Standards

Another change in WordPress, this time regarding the accessibility coding standards, has recently been approved. Developers, pay attention before building new tools, as they need to meet the new conditions from now on!

What are the changes all about?

  • HTML semantics.
  • Color contrast.
  • Keyboard accessibility.
  • Images and icons.
  • Labelling.
accessibility coding standards

shopify
Introducing Shopify for WordPress

Are you a fan of both WordPress and Shopify? You’ll be pleased to learn that Shopify is now more easily integrated with WordPress through the new official plugin.

The new e-commerce plugin is free and comes bundled with three modern themes provided by Shopify. Now you can manage all your posts and pages from your WordPress dashboard. But, at the same time, you can use Shopify’s features for your online stores, such as payments, secure checkout, shipping and fulfilment, inventory, and taxes.


WordCamp Europe 2016 Expands Attendee Capacity to 2200, Largest WordCamp to Date

It seems like it’s going to be a big party in Vienna in a couple of months! All WordCamp tickets were sold out six months in advance and a new series of 400 was made available this month. Given this fact, the organizers found themselves in the situation of expanding the venue capacity by adding additional halls in near places that are one-minute away from the main location, Museumsplatz.

This has just become the largest WordCamp ever! Have you booked your ticket yet?

wordcamp 2016

Great Articles From Around The Web

WordPress Revolution with GraphQL

REST API is great, but would you say “no” to something more modern and easier? Mark Gavalda gives us a hint (and a push) to try seeing things beyond REST API. Because we may find better stuff around … such as GraphQL.

Write CSS in the Customizer with the Advanced CSS Editor Plugin

You can now write CSS for different device screen sizes in the Live Customizer and watch the changes in real time. How great does that sound? Advanced CSS Editor makes that possible for you.

How to Migrate WordPress to a Different Domain Name

Need to change your domain, but you’re not sure what is going to happen to your content? Here’s how to do it safely.

Are WordPress “lite” themes useful?

Many companies rely on the “lite” versions of their products to promote their brands and services. Want to know why a free theme is useful for a business? Here’s some good insight.

Popular A/B Testing Tools For WordPress

Find out which of your landing pages’ versions drive more clicks and actions. How? Using an A/B testing tool from this list.

How to Make a Niche Review Site in WordPress Like a Pro

Building a review site shouldn’t be too difficult when there are great articles that can teach you how to do it. This is one of them.

How WordPress Sites Get Hacked (And What to Do About It)

Have you ever asked yourself how and why people hack websites? And more important, why would anyone hack YOUR site? Here are some answers.

The Ultimate Guide to the WordPress functions.php File

As a developer who creates themes for WordPress, you should learn as much as you can about how and why a *certain* important file works. Or if it doesn’t, how to make it work. Here’s everything you need to know about the functions.php file.

20 Useful WordPress Calendar Plugins

If you own a site where calendars play an essential role, using a beautiful and modern solution will make your site look better and more engaging. These plugins will give you a helping hand.

11 Truly Useful Yet Unknown WordPress Features

So you’ve been working with WordPress for a while, but do you know of all these neat tricks?

WordPress Plugin Roundup – March 2016

Let’s end our roundup with another roundup. Here are some of the most interesting free WordPress plugins released in March 2016!

That’s it for this edition. Anything we missed?
 

 
Adelina Tuca

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Eva Kyte
October 20, 2016 5:12 pm

Hello Adelina Tuca ,
This is a great news about wordpress . I’m also a beginner . So feeling excellent to see such news . Like your post and appreciated . Thannk you so much for sharing this here .

Rosa D. Burdick
August 3, 2016 1:40 pm

You have done here new wordpress news it an excellent informative post , So thanks .

wpliving
April 4, 2016 6:50 pm

Thanks for including my post in your roundup. A lot of good stuff to go through here. I especially enjoyed WPBeginner’s post on making a niche review site.

Adelina Tuca
April 5, 2016 11:57 am
Reply to  wpliving

You’re welcome! I’m glad you enjoyed reading us.

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